4
Craven County’s
'amity Weekly
Newspaper
i-UGHlI^rr
Member of the
North Carolina
Press Association
Serving Askin, Bridgeton, Caton, Cove City, Dover, Epworth, Ernui, Ft. Barnweii, Jasper, New Bern, Piney Neck, Tuscarora, Vanceboro, Wiimar.
Volume 6, Number 36
Vanceboro, North Carolina
September 2,1982
Phone 244-0780
12 Pages
20 Cents
Back to School
West Craven Middle School students board bus #150 in downtown
Vanceboro for their journey across the river.
The area schools opened their doors
for students last Thursday.
Buses were rolling and students
eagerly awaited their bus to stop for
them. Area principals noted it was the
smoothest school opening they had
experienced in several years. Even
Mr. Richard Bowers, principal of the
West Graven students are ready for another year in education. Students
seem happy on opening day. Keep that smile ail year!
new Farm Life Elementary School,
said , “I can’t complain, my school
opened with very few problenis and
those few problems were handled
without delay and we had a good
opening day.”
One of Mr. Bower’s problems was his
lunchroom was unable to open for the
first two days due to the malfunction of
some of the equipment. Bag lunches
were prepared at West Craven High
School cafeteria and the students were
fed in an hour. Mr. Bowers said even
the lunchroom not being ready worked
in his favor since it gave the small
children a chance to get more
accustomed to the new school.
Mark Meltzer, guidance counselor
for West Craven, says he is having the
normal number of schedule changes
but all in all he felt the opening day
was smooth.
Staff Writer,
Photos by Richard Cannon
Carolina Telephone Files For Local Rate
Increase
T. P. Williamson
Tarboro-Carolina Telephone and Telegraph
Company on August 30,1982, filed a request with the
North Carolina Utilities Commission for a rate
iHnerease of about $3.11 a month for the average
^Residential customer. -
T. P. Williamson, Carolina Telephone’s vice
president-administration, said, “The company
regrets the necessity to file for increased rates so soon
after our last general rate increase but it has no
choice if it is to continue providing the quality
telephone service our customers expect and deserve.
Despite our most stringent efforts to control and
reduce the cost of providing telephone service, the
additional revenues granted to the company in April
of this year simply have not materialized. 'This is due
in part to the Commission’s overestimating the
revenues which it anticipated that the company
would receive from a statewide increase in long
distance rates, coupled with the drastic changes
imposed upon the entire telephone industry through
federal deregulation, and the difficult state of the
^'^economy in general.
As a result, the company has no opportunity to earn
the return found fair by the Commission in our last
general rate case and continue to meet its service
obligations."
The company is seeking a $37.7 million increase in
its annual revenues. Of this, $4.8 million would be for
increased Extended Area Service (EAS) rates; $3.3
million would be for increased service connection,
move and change charges; $28.5 million would be for
increased basic local exchange service rates; and $1.1
million would be for increased charges for
supplemental services and equipment. According to
Williamson over half of the increased revenues would
go to pay federal, state, and local taxes.
Williamson said, “Competition is a key factor in
today’s telephone environment. As in any industry,
competition drives prices toward costs, and in our
case where local residential service has been
subsidized by other services, the price is being driven
up rather than down.”
National trends by the courts. Congress and the
Federal Communications Commission to deregulate
the telephone industry will reduce or remove many of
the lucrative sources of income that have helped
underwrite local telephone service. Because of the
trends, revenue sources such as equipment and long
distance charges and yellow pages advertising will
be reduced or eliminated and local telephone
companies will have to make up the shortfall by
increasing rates to customers.
“Deregulation and competition are making it
impossible to continue a pricing system that spreads
our costs over everyone,” Williamson said, “Local
service historically has been significantly
underpriced. In the last 25 years, the cost of living
in general, as measured by the Consumer Price
Index, has increased more than ten times as much as
our rates for local telephone service.”
If the requested increase is granted, the average
residential customer in Carolina Telephone’s
smallest exchanges will pay $2.60 m ~e per month
for basic service; in the company’s largest exchanges
(Continued on page 12)
Mildred Jones
What’s A “10”
On her Success-O-Graph, Ms. Mildred Jones,
representative from Maola Milk Co., showed the
Vanceboro Rotarians last Thursday what it takes to
be a “10” in our society today. She stated that most
people rate themselves about a “5” which means they
are the worst of the best and the best of the worst
depending how you read the Success-O-Graph.
Ms. Jones listed ten qualities that make up the “10”
personality. They are as follows: l)Enjoys long hours
of hard work, 2) extraordinary amount of energy, 3)
has motivation, 4) desire for privacy, 5) extremely
competitive, 6) persistence (more important than
intelligence), 7) ability to bounce back from failure,
8) compulsively curious, 9) opportunist, and 10) true
believer (sold on company, product, and goal.)
When using these ten qualities, she pointed out, the
attitude you have when using them really is the whole
basis for being a “10”.